People cautioned Chris Kavanaugh when he opened Sub Corral Sandwich Shop in Belmont. Drivers coming from town might not want to make the Wilkinson Boulevard U-turn it takes to get there, said naysayers.

More than 30 years later, Gaston County diners are still maneuvering into the Sub Corral parking lot. And Kavanaugh can’t count the number of times he’s heard folks giving directions that start with, “You know where Sub Corral is?”

The Boston native, who still drops his R’s but considers Belmont home, has his own U-turn in sight.

He’ll sell the restaurant, by now a local institution with its “designer clubs” and Neapolitan pizza, to Dan Higgins, a Mooresville resident and New York transplant.

Higgins said he stumbled on the sub shop by accident and got a nice surprise when he tried the food.

He got to know Kavanaugh — something plenty of locals have done over the years as the restaurant owner fed the South Point High School football team and dotted the walls with jerseys from local athletes.

And when Higgins found his friend was ready to retire, he says he jumped at the chance to run the local staple.

Higgins will keep the booths that are scarred with generations of graffiti, the proclamations of teenage love — “Eric ‘hearts’ Marcely,” “Mike-N-Connie” and “Mike (presumably not the same Mike) l/s Lyndi.”

And he’ll offer the same sandwiches, sides and other favorites. The pasta salad, Higgins and Kavanaugh promise, isn’t going anywhere.

But the new owner will work to capitalize on other aspects of the business. Promoting delivery service is high on his priority list. Higgins will also open on Sundays, a practice he’ll kick off Super Bowl weekend.

It’s an indication of Kavanaugh’s success with Sub Corral that he started closing up shop on Sundays in the first place. The restaurant was doing well enough without the seventh day, so he decided everyone deserved the time off, he says.

The business also helped him put two kids through college and let the family see Hawaii, Canada and other far-flung locales. And Sub Corral introduced Kavanaugh to a community where the out-of-towner became a local who can’t go anywhere without meeting someone he knows.

That was all after the Vietnam veteran came South with $5,000 in his pocket and had to rely on a government-subsidized loan for his house.

“Sub Corral has done everything I ever wanted it to do for me,” Kavanaugh said.

He will stick around until the weather warms up to help run the place.

After that the 63-year-old will take some time for himself, first hopping on his motorcycle for a month-long trip to the West Coast.